Psalm 128

3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
    within your house;
your children will be like olive shoots
    around your table.
4 Behold, thus shall the man be blessed
    who fears the Lord.

5 The Lord bless you from Zion!
    May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
    all the days of your life!
6 May you see your children’s children!
    Peace be upon Israel!

Psalm 128 is a portion of a group known as the “Psalms of Ascent.” These mark the pilgrimage up to Jerusalem in observance of the covenantally prescribed feasts and provide an excellent occasion to reflect on God’s gracious provision in every area of life.

A superficial glance might suggest that this Psalm sets us up for a kind of mechanistic “paint by numbers” sort of faith. I do this and God gives me that. But this is not the way to read any portion of Holy Scripture. We read it as part of the big story of God’s revelation to us about who he is, who we are, and what this world is like.  This Psalm is trying to get across that God’s ways are good and that following him and trusting him are the path to life. Sometimes that path is smooth and sometimes that path is rocky. He gives, and he takes away. As Scotty Smith has said:

As a Psalm of Ascent, this is a song of hope—a song sung as God’s people approached the Temple, which for them was a taste of the future. We all long for the Shalom of life in the new heaven and new earth, when as Tolkien said, “everything sad will come untrue”. This isn’t a Psalm of hype, but hope. We know there are plenty of other Psalms that are laments, cries for mercy, songs of confusion, etc. that clearly show us (along with the rest of the Bible) that the Christian life isn’t pain or suffering free. Jesus is the only one who has completely fulfilled Psalm 128 for us. Only Jesus has “feared the Lord enough” to secure for us a life of perfection in the new heaven and new earth, when as Tom Wright has said, “everything will be put right.” In Philippians 1:29, Paul describes believing in Christ and suffering for Christ, both as gifts of grace, and in chapter 3 he prayed to enter the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings. As with everything else, we must let our Father define “blessing” however he wants. Hebrews 11:32-38 shows us that a life of fearing the Lord includes everything from receiving our children back from the dead to being sawn in half!